1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a general Chinese phonetic keyboard setting apparatus which uses computer techniques to enable the user to define a Chinese phonetic keyboard in a computer system that suits the Chinese character input habit of the user, and which is capable of automatically determining whether or not the Chinese phonetic keyboard that was defined by the user is rational based on mutual acceptance and mutual rejection among finals, initials, medials and tones of the Chinese language.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The technique of using a keyboard in a computer system to input Chinese characters has been around for many years. While advancements have been made in the fields of Chinese handwriting recognition and speech recognition, it is believed that the input of Chinese characters will still be achieved mainly with the use of a computer keyboard in the coming years. Not a few developers of numerous Chinese input methods have maintained that their input method is the quickest. However, in some places like Taiwan, more than half of computer users prefer the use of Chinese phonetic characters to input Chinese characters especially because they have been trained in Chinese phonetics since their elementary years.
The most common Chinese phonetic keyboard assigns one computer key to one Chinese phonetic character. This is the so-called "one key, one sound" method. It is noted that there are 37 Chinese phonetic symbols and 4 tones in the Chinese language. As such, a total of 41 computer keys (including the first tone, which is assigned the space bar key) is needed before a Chinese phonetic keyboard can be completely defined. As to the arrangement of the Chinese phonetic keyboard, this can be done according to the sequence of the Chinese phonetic symbols, such as in the standard Chinese phonetic keyboard of FIG. 6, and in the IBM Chinese phonetic keyboard of FIG. 7. Other Chinese phonetic keyboards associate the Chinese phonetic symbols with alphanumeric characters, such as in the I Tien Chinese phonetic keyboard of FIG. 8.
In the early years since the development of Chinese phonetic input methods, users of Chinese phonetic input methods made little demands on the arrangement of the Chinese phonetic keyboard because of a severe problem caused by the need to select from among different Chinese characters that sound alike, and because the conversion efficiency when using Chinese phonetics is actually not very high. With the advent of intelligent Chinese phonetic input methods in recent years, some people started to notice the arrangement of Chinese phonetic keyboards, thus leading to the use of only the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the space bar key, which represents the first tone, to define a Chinese phonetic keyboard. This is the so-called "one key, several sounds" method. The more popular Chinese phonetic keyboards of the aforementioned type include the I Tien 26-key Chinese phonetic keyboard (see FIG. 9) and the Hsu Shih Chinese phonetic keyboard (see FIG. 10).
The arrangements of the various Chinese phonetic keyboards mentioned above have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, once the user has become accustomed to a particular Chinese phonetic keyboard arrangement, it will be inconvenient for the user to use another Chinese phonetic keyboard to input Chinese characters when the computer system is replaced. The input speed will also be dramatically reduced.
Moreover, since the arrangements of the aforementioned conventional Chinese phonetic keyboards are fixed according to the design specifications of the manufacturer, they cannot be expected to satisfy the needs and habits of different users. Thus, it is desirable to provide an apparatus that enables the user to define his or her own Chinese phonetic keyboard.